


Slow days

by Wannawannabe



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Chan starts whipped and they both end up whipped tho, HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMY, M/M, Me being the basic fool i am and using that syntax word i forgot three years ago, love you, the most worrying thing that happens in this fic is Chan gets hit by a shoe, uhhhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 08:39:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17362685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wannawannabe/pseuds/Wannawannabe
Summary: Woojin waited for someone to walk in. No one had walked in since Woojin had begun his shift and it was testing his patience.It was only when the guy with red hair passed by the store for what Woojin was certain was the third time did he start to think something was weird.





	Slow days

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAMY ILY!!!

Woojin stared at the door. He didn’t know what time it was but it felt like it had been hours since anyone had walked in. His shift had started at least 3 hours ago and he felt like no one had walked in since he had gotten here. He wasn’t complaining, because less customers meant less chance of someone yelling at him for something he couldn’t control, but  _ nobody  _ had walked in.

 

Even Woojin got bored. 

 

It wasn’t as if there wasn’t anyone out at all though, because plenty people had walked  _ past _ the store, just not  _ into  _ it. Mostly other guys who seemed to care about every store in this mall except his. Woojin wondered how this store had hurt them, maybe it wasn’t his favorite place to shop either but he felt they hadn’t done anything wrong. 

 

He watched as another guy walked past, wondering how he had survived in the summer heat outside with such a big coat on. Woojin squinted, it also looked like he was wearing all black, Woojin mentally applauded his dedication to his aesthetic. 

 

Then the man walked away from the store and Woojin was bored again. 

 

The next 45 minutes consisted of Woojin watching possible customers come and go, and an exciting moment when a woman almost walked in. Only for it to end when she realized it was the wrong store and she walked away. Woojin wondered if he should be concerned that was the most exciting moment of his day. 

 

It was only when the guy with red hair passed by the store for what Woojin was certain was the third time did he start to think something was weird. He watched as another blonde haired boy passed by with the red haired guy, accidentally making eye contact with Woojin as he watched them. Their eyes widened and they both immediately ran away. Woojin’s eyes narrowed, something was definitely weird. 

 

Sadly, after that no one passed by the store for the next 10 minutes. He thought he briefly saw someone stumble in front of the store, but they were gone after a second so he wasn’t sure. He sighed as he watched the clock, he should probably appreciate this, and knew he’d regret it if he didn’t. He knew he’d recall this day fondly the next time the store was busy. 

 

He leaned against the counter, he would just try to relax and accept his fate as the new slow shift worker and try to appreciate it and pretend he wasn’t bored. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, he would be the most relaxed person on the planet. He slowly opened his eyes, only to immediately turn back to the storefront.

 

He met eyes with another man looking through the windows. This one also had blonde hair and Woojin wondered if anyone he had seen that day had hair untouched by dye. Once the man realized Woojin had caught him he quickly disappeared, and at this point Woojin wondered if it was worth it to confront whoever was outside.

 

But oddly, unlike the other two this one reappeared after a few seconds. Woojin watched as the other man stumbled in front of the store, as if someone had pushed him out there. This was further confirmed as the blonde man glared at someone off to the side where Woojin couldn’t see. 

 

Finally the man looked at Woojin, who at this point was just interested to see what he would do. Why was walking in such a bad thing? How had Woojin hurt these people? Why was this man essentially being sacrificed to him? Woojin was dying to figure out. 

 

The man managed to stand outside the store for another minute, and Woojin was starting to get worried about how much this man was staring at him. Woojin looked at his shirt. Had he stained it? He was sure it was clean this morning… maybe his hair was off? Woojin was starting to feel a bit self conscious about this. 

 

Woojin held a hand up to the man and waved a bit, shooting him a small smile that he hoped looked inviting. A small  _ ‘hey why don’t you come in?’ _ smile, a smile that hopefully told the man ‘ _ no I’m not going to hurt you, please tell me if there’s something in my hair’ _ .

 

Yet instead of the man relaxing like Woojin hoped, he seemed to tense even more, his face getting a bit red if Woojin was seeing right.  _ ‘Was he angry?’  _ Woojin worried, too used to customers that got angry over the smallest thing. It’s not like Woojin had done anything wrong, right? He had just waved… 

 

The man stood in front of the store for another few seconds, managing to confuse Woojin even more, before suddenly a shoe came flying from the man’s left and hit him in the head. 

 

Woojin gasped as the man ducked, managing to narrowly avoid another. The man was holding the side of his head in his hands. Woojin quickly rushed out to the man, who was now just crouching and holding his head, grimacing from what Woojin assumed was pain from the shoe assault. 

 

Woojin quietly opened the door to the store and walked up to the man. Stopping in front of him and crouching down in front of him. He tapped the man’s arm to get his attention. 

 

“Changbin I swear to god you better have a good re-” the man trailed off as he looked up and saw Woojin in front of him. The man’s mouth dropped a bit, and his hand fell from his head to his side. Woojin tilted his head a bit, was this man okay? The man still seemed a bit out of it so Woojin decided to take the initiative. 

 

“Hi, I’m Woojin, I saw you get hit by that shoe and I was wondering if you’re okay?” He asked, trying to keep his voice soft to hopefully not startle the man. 

 

“How is your voice just as pretty as you are?” The man mumbled, and Woojin felt his ears heat up a bit at the comment.

 

“E-excuse me?” He stuttered out, because he had  _ surely _ misheard. The man seemed to realize what he had said because he quickly closed his mouth and stood up.

 

“I mean- I’m- Well-” the man tried, as Woojin stood up as well. “Yes- Yeah. I’m fine,” the blonde man finally decided. Woojin shot him a skeptical look, looking at the red mark on the side of his face. The man seemed to realize where Woojin was looking and moved his hand up to his face. “Yeah don’t worry about it, it doesn’t even hur-” the man winced as he made contact with mark, quickly pulling his hand away. Woojin raised an eyebrow at him, unamused at the obvious lie.

 

“While I’m sure you’re the epitome of health,” Woojin responded, noticing the man’s eye bags. “I think we have some ice or cream in the store that might be able to help with…” he pointed at the side of the man’s face, “that.” 

 

“I’m not sure…” the man mumbled, and Woojin was going to help him whether he liked it or not. 

 

“Don’t worry about it! Plus I haven’t had customers all day, if anything you’re helping  _ me _ ,” Woojin grabbed his hand and brought him into the store, unaware of the three heads poking out from around the corner waving at the man and sending him thumbs up. 

 

Woojin walked into the store, pulling the man towards the break room, where he was pretty sure they had ice. Technically he wasn’t supposed to bring anyone here, but he felt this was a worthy cause, that would hopefully keep him out of trouble. Plus, what his boss didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. 

 

The man tried to protest when Woojin pulled him into the break room, seeing the sign marked “Staff ONLY” and asking Woojin if he was allowed to go in there. Woojin just ignored the questions and told him there should be ice in here. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him anymore than that shoe had.

 

“So what’s your name because I’ve just been calling you ‘shoe guy’ in my head,” Woojin asked as he walked over to the fridge, opening the freezer to look for ice.

 

“Oh! I’m Chris! Wait- Chan! I’m Chan. Bang Chan.” Bang Chan seemed satisfied with his answer, and Woojin wondered how the man forgot his own name. “But you can call me Chan!” He added hastily. Woojin nodded slowly as he handed Chan the small bag of ice. 

 

“It’s not much but it should hopefully help a little Mr.Chris Bang Chan,” Woojin smiled at him playfully. Chan smiled back a bit hesitantly, but Woojin would take it as a win. “Now Mr. Bang Chan, what brought you to the outside of my store on this fine summer day?” Chan turned a bit red at the question, and rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand.

 

“Ah well…” Woojin nodded, encouraging him to go on. “My friend has to buy something but he’s too embarrassed to?” Chan sounded a little uncertain but Woojin nodded. He had people come in and buy for others before, so it made sense Chan was doing it as well. 

 

“Then why’d you just stand out there for so long?” Woojin asked, still a bit confused, was Chan embarrassed to buy it too? 

 

“Oh! Well uh… we thought one of our friends was working here today… so I was surprised he wasn’t… here…” Chan answered slowly.

 

“Which friend?” Woojin asked and maybe he should slow down, it felt like he was interrogating the poor guy. Chan seemed a bit less hesitant at this question. 

 

“Hyunjin! Hwang? He’s usually here today and wednesdays I think,” Chan answered easily. Woojin perked up, he knew Hyunjin and loved him. 

 

“Oh I love Hyunjin! He’s such a nice kid,” Woojin exclaimed and went to grab Chan again. “Any friend of his is a friend of mine! What did you need?” Chan’s face seemed to change from one of hesitant happiness to vengeance of some kind. Woojin decided it was probably better he didn’t question it as Chan went into detail about his friends bowel problems and all the things he needed to help it and how he just  _ had _ to have the heating pads they sold. 

 

As Woojin was ringing up Chan’s purchase, probably knowing too much about the bowel movement of some kid named Seungmin, Chan stopped him. 

 

“This is a uh, weird question, but do you go to the university down the road?” Chan asked, and Woojin smiled at him.

 

“I do! Why? Do you go there too?” 

 

“I do…” Chan nodded slowly, he looked Woojin over, “I think you’re in my music theory class?” Woojin froze, and tried very hard to not immediately feel very very bad because he was 90% sure he had never seen Chan in his life. He tried to finish up Chan’s purchase, hoping maybe Chan was wrong.

 

“Oh! Are in you in the 4 o’clock class with professor park?” He asked nonchalantly, praying Chan said no. 

 

“Yeah I am!” Chan said happily, and Woojin felt himself die a little inside. Obviously he shouldn’t blame himself for not knowing  _ everyone _ in the class, but he usually prided himself on knowing the names of most kids. Meanwhile he hadn’t even known Chan  _ existed _ until 10 minutes ago. Woojin smiled at Chan and tried to pretend he hadn’t realized Chan was in the class.

 

“Oh so  _ that’s _ why you looked familiar!” Woojin lied through his teeth. Chan seemed so nice and there was no way in hell Woojin was going to make him sad. “How are you doing in the class?” Woojin asked desperately trying to switch subject without him noticing. “Park is kicking my ass,” he sighed.

 

“Oh… really? I’m doing okay,” Chan answered, shrugging his shoulders. Woojin glanced at him as he finally finished Chan’s purchase.

 

“What’s okay mean?” 

 

“I think i got a 93 on the last project?” Chan answered uncertainly. Woojin’s mouth dropped.

 

“That’s amazing! Are you kidding almost everyone i know got a C on that project!” Woojin exclaimed, _okay???_ _Chan was doing better than 90% of the kids in that class!_

 

“I think I just got lucky…” Chan trailed off and Woojin waa not going to let this secret genius talk down to himself. 

 

“Chan there’s no way you just got ‘lucky’, Park’s one of the harshest graders I’ve ever seen, I’ve been getting C’s on the last three projects. You got that A because you deserved it!” Woojin leaned closer to Chan as he said this, putting the bag on the counter. Chan’s face seemed to get very bright red, was he coming down with a fever?

 

“... I guess,” Chan admitted reluctantly, and before Woojin could argue more, because they were  _ friends _ now and Chan would praise himself if it’s the last thing Woojin did, he switched topics. “You said you got a C?” 

 

“Yeah,” Woojin sighed, pushing away from the counter. “Either Park hates me or I’m just dumb because this is the worst I’ve ever done in a music class and I’ve been playing piano for too long to be getting a C in  _ music _ ,” Chan furrowed his brow as Woojin said this.

 

“I could… help you if you wanted?” Chan offered and Woojin’s eyes widened.

 

“Chan you don’t have to-”

 

“No I want to!”

 

“I’m sure you’re busy!”

 

“I still have time,”

 

“Still! I couldn’t just-” Woojin was cut off as Chan put the bag down on the counter with a Thump. He held out his phone to Woojin, who stared at it.

 

“Put your number in and I’ll text you days that work, I live by the library anyways so helping wouldn’t inconvenience me at all okay?” Woojin continued staring at the phone as Chan said this. Chan nudged it towards him again and Woojin snapped out of whatever trance he was in. He grabbed the phone and typed the numbers in,  _ this is the most agressively caring way anyone’s ever asked for my number _ , he thought to himself. 

 

He finished his contact, adding hearts around the “Woojinnie” he had set. He was probably older than Chan but he thought the name was cute, and would probably end up setting Chan’s contact as a nickname as well. He handed the phone back to Chan, wondering why he was feeling shy about it. 

 

Chan nodded as he took his phone back and walked out of the store, waving at Woojin as he left. Woojin gave him a small wave back, wondering if his smile looked as dumbstruck as he felt. 

 

He turned around as Chan left, biting his lip to try not to smile as hard he wanted to. It was just a tutoring set up, nothing special. 

 

He missed Chan take two steps out of the store then collapse onto his knees as three figures ran over to him to interrogate him on the encounter. 

 

Woojin sent a text to Minho to tell him he didn’t need a tutor for Music Theory anymore. Minho sent him a frowny face, telling him his tutor was going to be super cute. Woojin rolled his eyes, he wasn’t planning on having a crush on  _ anyone _ for a while, he wasn’t looking for a boyfriend anytime soon.

  
  
  


A month, five tutoring sessions, and a seat change later, left Woojin sprawled across Minho’s couch lamenting his life choices as Minho ate ice cream and judged him. Woojin would say his cats were judging him as well but he was pretty sure that was just their natural state at this point.

 

“I should’ve known,” Woojin groaned, “He had  _ dimples  _ goddammit I’ve always been a sucker for dimples,” Minho nodded as he quietly ate another spoonful of ice cream. Woojin rolled over, “Minho how could you let this happen to me? You’re supposed to be my best friend and protect me from cute, nice, handsome, Australian, strong, annoyingly good at everything boys who need to  _ take care of themselves more- _ ” 

 

“I’m going to stop you right there because you’re literally only describing Chan,  _ and _ I was going to get you a tutor and you went and found Chan by yourself! How could I have stopped this?” Minho retorted, mouth half full of ice cream. Woojin glared at him, Minho staring back unflinchingly as he put another spoonful of ice cream in his mouth. 

 

“I thought I was the one moping why do you get the ice cream?” Woojin asked. 

 

“Buy your own ice cream, this cost me like $5” 

 

Woojin nodded, that was fair. His phone went off right as he was about to decide he should get ice cream, reminding him he had work. He groaned and rolled again, that was the last place he wanted to go.

 

“You should call in sick,” Minho suggested. 

 

“I don’t even  _ sound _ sick,” Woojin argued. 

 

“Yeah but you are actually sick,” Minho said seriously, Woojin turned to him. What was he talking about? “Love sick,” Minho concluded, and Woojin briefly wondered if he would go to jail fast enough to avoid work if he killed Minho then and there. 

 

“I can hear your homicidal thoughts from here!” Minho called as he walked into the kitchen. He poked his head out to look at Woojin, “So get out of my apartment and go cry about your crush on Chan to Hyunjin.” 

 

Woojin pouted at him, but go up, muttering things about unhelpful best friends. He gathered his things and hugged Minho who made sure he knew he could come back if he actually wanted to talk about it after work. They said bye and Woojin went to work, trying to figure out a way to talk about Chan without Hyunjin realizing he was talking about Chan. 

  
  
  


Sadly though, today turned out to be one of their busier days. Woojin’s time was spent with customers and organizing things others messed up. It wasn’t until he looked up from the items he was bagging to see that Chan was the person buying them. 

 

Woojin’s mouth dropped, surprised to see the man he had been yelling about earlier in front of him. He realized Chan was saying something and snapped himself out of whatever trance he was in. 

 

“...-you been?” Chan asked, smile small, but enough to make Woojin’s heart squeeze. 

 

“I’ve- uh I’ve been good!” Woojin responded, hoping he had answered what Chan had asked. “Our study dates have been helping it a lot!” He added, hoping it would distract from earlier if he had said something odd. 

 

What he  _ didn’t _ expect was for Hyunjin and his apparent Vulcan hearing to slide over from where he was and join their conversation. 

 

“Dates?” Hyunjin asked, and never in Woojin’s life had he regretted a word choice more. Hyunjin hugged Woojin, “You didn’t tell me you and Channie hyung were dating!”

 

Perhaps if Woojin were not so busy blushing and trying to get Hyunjin to shut up he would’ve noticed how heavy Chan was blushing as well. Chan stayed silent, waiting for Woojin to respond.

 

“Hyunjin that’s not what I meant and you know it,” Woojin complained as Hyunjin giggled. Woojin pushed him away, “Go do work there are customers waiting!” 

 

“Okayyy I’ll leave you with your totally not boyfriend,” Hyunjin teased, and Woojin valiantly tried to make sure he wasn’t blushing. Hyunjin winked at him and Woojin made a mental note to annoy Hyunjin about that red haired kid later. 

 

He turned back to Chan, who gave him a confused look. Woojin awkwardly shrugged, trying to come up with an excuse.

 

“Sorry about that… you know how Hyunjin is, always trying to find everyone but himself a date,” He said slowly. Chan laughed a bit,

 

“Yeah he used to do that to me a lot,” Chan replied, still chuckling a bit. Woojin tilted his head a bit, interested.

 

“Oh? What’d he do?”

 

Chan seemed to panic at this, stuttering a bit and ended up saying something about a setup a while back. Woojin wasn’t quite sure what he meant, but Chan seemed uncomfortable and Woojin rather not hear about his past dates. 

 

Eventually Chan did leave, and while Woojin was sad to see him go he was also relieved because at this point he felt like his heart would just jump out of his chest every time he saw Chan. 

 

Hyunjin slid over to him again once Chan was gone, wiggling his eyebrows at Woojin. Woojin rolled his eyes and tried to escape. Sadly Hyunjin was tall and gangly and had long limbs that easily trapped Woojin. Woojin struggled a bit before relaxing into it, accepting Hyunjin was going to tease him no matter what.

 

“Sooooo you and Chan hyung huh?” Hyunjin asked suggestively, and Woojin rolled his eyes again. 

 

“We’re just friends, nothing more,” He said, trying to keep his voice indifferent towards it. Hyunjin squeezed him harder, and looked at him, and Woojin wondered if he should work on his acting. 

 

“Woojin if you like him you should tell him! It’s not good to keep all your feelings bottled up!” Hyunjin reminded him. Woojin thought Minho would not agree he was bottling up his feelings, with the amount Woojin went over there to whine about Chan. 

 

“I don’t like him! He’s just nice! And cute! And interesting! And maybe I wouldn’t say  _ no _ if he asked me out, but I don’t like him!” Woojin argued. Hyunjin raised an eyebrow at him, and Woojin groaned and let his head fall onto Hyunjin’s shoulder. “I’m screwed aren’t I?” 

 

“Only if you’re lucky!” Hyunjin winked at him, and Woojin scoffed and pushed him away. “But seriously hyung, you should tell him! Even if he doesn’t like you back you guys can still be friends!” 

 

“I’d rather avoid inevitable rejection if I can Hyunjinnie,” Woojin sighed out as he rang up another customer. Hyunjin frowned at him.

 

“Woojin if you really think he doesn’t like you, all I can do is tell you to start looking closer,” Hyunjin said seriously. “But I’ll leave you alone this time.”

 

Woojin sighed with relief. He wasn’t planning on telling Chan but at least he wouldn’t have to worry about Hyunjin’s meddling. 

 

Woojin sighed as another customer passed, he would figure it out eventually. 

  
  
  
  


A year later left Woojin and Chan’s friend groups officially merged, and Hyunjin and Seungmin the first couple to come out of it. They teased that they wouldn’t be the last but Woojin decided to ignore that comment.

 

Hyunjin’s reminder to “look closer” had begun to haunt Woojin. He hadn’t thought about it at the time, more content to have a no-Hyunjin guarantee, but as he spent more and more time with Chan the reminder began to move to the front of his mind again.

 

Look closer, at the way whenever Chan and him would be out on one of their walks Chan’s hand would always find its way to his.

 

Look closer, at how on their sunday chicken dates Chan would always end up finding something to softly brush off his cheek. Even if Woojin was completely sure there wasn’t a crumb anywhere on him. 

 

Look closer, when they still made time for each other and studied with each other in the library even though the two no longer shared classes. 

 

Look closer, at how Woojin wasn’t the only blushing when their faces got a  _ bit _ too close. But how he had noticed he was the only one that ended up turning away from it. 

 

Look closer, at how well he and Chan fit together. Woojin making sure Chan didn’t overwork himself, and Chan making sure Woojin didn’t take unnecessary responsibility. 

 

Maybe he should’ve been looking closer for a while. 

 

Woojin stared up at Minho’s ceiling, thinking about all the times Chan had done something to hint they could’ve been more than friends.

 

“Does… does Chan like me?” Woojin whispered. He heard Minho choke on his drink in the kitchen and mutter something like “Oh my god it’s happening.” 

 

Minho rushed into the living room and ran over to Woojin, standing over him. 

 

“What did you say?” Minho asked carefully, as if he said it wrong Woojin would run away. 

 

“Does Chan like me?” Woojin repeated. Minho made a noise Woojin wasn’t sure how he accomplished with his mouth closed. 

 

“FINALLY!” Minho yelled, startling Woojin. The next thing Woojin knew he was on the ground and Minho was on the couch. “GO ASK HIM OUT!” 

 

Woojin stared at him. Minho put his head in his hands and yelled again.

 

“I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE HE IS!!” Woojin yelled back, confused why Minho was so admanant he do it immediately. Minho picked up his phone and called some one, asking them where they were. 

 

“ _ I’m at the quad? Why are-” _ Minho hung up and pointed at the door. 

 

“ASK HIM OUT NOW!” Minho yelled again, and Woojin got off the floor and walked to the door. Still confused why Minho was so hasty for him to do it. He closed the door and began to walk away.

 

As he walked down the hall he heard something that sounded like “I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR A  _ YEAR _ !!

 

Woojin wondered what the person could be talking about. 

  
  
  


It was only when Woojin was in the quad, walking up to Chan did he realize that this meant he was going to ask Chan out. On a date. To be his boyfriend. 

 

Woojin stopped. 

 

There was no way he could do this. He couldn’t just  _ ask out _ Chan! He got ready to turn around and leave, and just face Minho’s wrath. 

 

“Woojin!” Chan’s voice called out, and Woojin cringed. He waved at Chan and plastered a fake smile on his face, walking over to the table Chan was at. 

 

Okay so maybe he talks to Chan but he doesn’t ask him out, easy peasy. 99% of Woojin’s interactions with Chan involved not asking him out. Woojin could do it easily. 

 

He sat down next to Chan, confident in his ability to keep his mouth shut. 

 

But Chan was smiling at him in the way that made Woojin’s heart clench, and the sun was shining beside him, brightening his features even more. He looked so beautiful and Woojin knew whatever was going to come out of his mouth next was going to make his heart melt. So Woojin ended up doing something much worse than just walking up to him and asking him out, something he’d probably never live down.

 

He didn’t realize he was kissing Chan until Chan started kissing back.

 

Woojin pulled away, staring at Chan, eyes wide. What had just happened. Chan stared back, confused as well.

 

“You like me,” Woojin stated. And wait- no that’s not what he was trying to say.

 

“I do,” Chan responded, and Woojin tried not to choke on air. 

 

“I meant that I like you but that works too,” Woojin muttered, slightly embarrassed. Chan smiled, and Woojin wanted to whine over how much power that smile had over his heart. 

 

“Well then I think we should kiss again,” Chan suggested, and Woojin put his head against Chan’s shoulders and tried not giggle like he was 12.

 

“Maybe we should,” Woojin agreed. His head snapped up, “Wait I was going to ask you out.”

 

“I think this counts,” Chan whispered, before pulling Woojin’s head to his and kissing him again. Woojin relaxed into the kiss, putting his hands on Chan’s shoulders as Chan put his hands on Woojin’s waist.

 

Woojin decided this was just as good as asking someone out. 

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Find me @channieroo on twitter and tumblr! :D


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